


Take me away, I don't mind

by diabla616



Category: Marvel Ultimate Universe
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:07:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21962587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/diabla616/pseuds/diabla616
Summary: Steve hates the 21st Century - it's lonely and he's still not over what he's lost from his own time. So when the Ultimates missions keep throwing the possibility of time-travel into his day, well, he has to try.Or: all the times Steve tried to use a villain's time-travel device to go back to the past, and the one time he chose to stay in the future.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 12
Kudos: 75
Collections: 2019 Captain America/Iron Man Holiday Exchange





	Take me away, I don't mind

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> Happy holidays @gezhu! I hope you like this.

When Steve's being honest, he thinks the 21st Century turned out to be a total shitshow, both personally and professionally. 

Personally, because in the future his best friend marries his sweetheart, and lives out the very same happily ever after Steve had envisioned for _himself_ before the War, and professionally, because it turns out even a World War wasn't enough to stop the damn Nazis - they just wear different uniforms these days.

Only sometimes they don't; sometimes Steve gets lucky and the bastards make it easier for him. Case in point; their current target calls himself _Baron Strucker_ , and allegedly intends to ‘ _bring back the golden age of the Third Reich_ ’. Steve hadn’t even stopped to ask _how_ he intended to do that – just suited up and set off, with the rest of the Ultimates following hot on his heels.

Steve’s the first of the Ultimates on-scene, closely followed by Pym and the Wasp, although none of them have much of a clue what they’re looking at.

“This is Stark’s scene, not mine Cap,” Pym tells him, and the Wasp agrees herself with an apologetic shrug.

Then again, Steve’s never been afraid to swing first and ask questions later, especially when it’s Nazis he’s swinging at, and he’s not exactly in the mood for a soliloquy on the best of days.

So, by the time Stark shows up, the fight is almost over with; Janet is eying him warily, a complicated expression on her face that Steve doesn’t quite know how to read, and Pym, asshole that he is, is muttering under his breath - comments about _superheroes_ and _ego_ that despite his enhanced hearing Steve can’t quite make out enough to call him out on.

"You always make such a mess, darling," are the first words out of Stark's mouth once he's touched down, "it's a good job I'm happy to help you clean it up."

Despite himself, Steve finds himself breaking into a smile at that, rolling his eyes and responding in kind to Stark's teasing, because it's _good_ to hear his off-colour jokes diffusing Steve's frustration about the Nazis. It's good to know that whatever else is wrong with the 21st Century, there are still men like Tony Stark who do the right thing purely for the fact that it is the right thing.

"Come on darling, the first round is on me!"

"The first round was on you last time, Stark," someone, presumably Thor, points out.

"Of course, and the next one will be too," Stark fires back, "unless there's _another_ eccentric billionaire on the Ultimates I haven't met yet, I'm still the one with the most disposable income."

"Stark"

Pym's voice startles Steve out of his thoughts, and both Stark and Thor stop in their tracks.

"We couldn't figure out his machine, we thought it might be more your area-"

Pym sounds a little like it's causing him physical pain to ask, but Stark doesn't seem to notice, or draw attention to it if he does.

Stark examines the machine, one eyebrow raised. It sets Steve's nerves on edge - he'd thought he had at least determined enough to be confident that it wasn't a bomb, but now he's not sure. Stark has a working knowledge of most European languages, German included, and an extensive familiarity with all kinds of machinery, so at least if it _is_ a bomb Steve can be confident it's not going to go off right now. 

He doesn't realise just how tense he is at the thought however, until Stark _laughs_.

"It's a time machine."

The tension in his shoulders drains at that, and Stark laughs again.

"It's harmless Cap. We can have SHIELD collect it now, or I can cannibalise it for parts later - your call."

"It's yours," he tells Stark, who smiles at him in response, and gestures for Steve to follow him and Thor.

Steve waves them off.

After everyone has left, Steve stares at the machine, like he can figure out its secrets with just his own force of will. Of course, that's not going to work, so he starts flipping switches instead, learning the responses until he's fairly confident he knows what each does. The machine is huge - it filles an entire wall of the room Steve's still in, but while Strucker had traps dotted all about the facility, and a few enthusiastic if misguided guards, he had no real accomplices, which suggests it can be operated by one person alone.

So he does; flips a few switches, turns the largest of the dials back, then steps inside the machine. He's not sure exactly when he has the machine set to, _but_ , he thinks _it has to be better than now._

As he pulls the lever he hopes Stark still gets the parts he needs.

Only nothing happens.

Disappointed, he doesn't go home to his empty apartment. He doesn't often drink with Stark and Thor after missions, but he has done in the past, often enough that access to Stark's penthouse isn't an issue, and his welcome isn't in question when he changes direction and heads there instead.

Later, when Thor is passed out in a guest room, only Steve, still sober despite his best efforts, and Stark who manages to seem far less affected by the alcohol than he is, by virtue of his familiarity with alcohol in all its forms, are still awake.

Stark turns to him, uncharacteristically serious and asks, "it didn't work, did it?"

* * *

They grow closer; Steve and Stark, and eventually Steve and Thor too. Steve learns to trust them in a way he hasn't managed with SHIELD, or really anyone in the future. The Ultimates, slowly, become a team borne out of more than obligation and necessity.

He never quite warms to Pym though.

That working relationship, strained as it is, only worsens as Steve grows closer to Janet. By the time the situation there reaches boiling point Steve no longer has any interest in mending bridges. When he catches up with Pym later it's _personal_ , despite Janet's fury at his interference.

So - the 21st Century is still a damned disgrace, but Steve's finding his feet; he has friends, he has a team and he has a - he has Janet. He's _adapting_.  
And if he's the first on-scene after a callout, and the last to leave after cleanup, if his downtime is spent studying mission reports and analysing battles - that's just dedication to his team, of course.

Until one day he isn't - he's held up with Janet in the city, and Stark and Thor are the first to respond. When he arrives Stark's holding what looks like a ray gun from one of those sci-fi programs he's so fond of, and passing it from hand to hand as he paces. Thor has the culprit retrained with minimal effort.

"So, what were you hoping to do with this charming gadget of yours, hm?"

The boy - he can't be far out of his teens - snarls back "I still _will_. I'll send you so far back in time that even the great _Tony Stark_ can't build something to save the day."

Steve can't help the flicker of hope that generates, and once the kid is handed over to SHIELD custody, he approaches Stark - trying to be discreet about his interest in the gadget.  
Though it seems he fails miserably. Stark hands it over with a raised eyebrow and a comment,

"I'm afraid it won't actually work, darling. Be a dear and hand it in to SHIELD when you're finished trying though, won't you? There's nothing useful in this."

It doesn't work.

"I thought things were better?" Stark asks later, and Steve doesn't know how to answer the question there.

_Better_ , yes, things are better now, but he doesn't know how to explain to _Tony Stark_ that better isn't _good_. That whatever he might have now isn't a patch on the life he'd planned for himself before all this - he might be adapting to the 21st Century, but he's still an old man out of his time here. That he'd hand whatever the 21st Century gave him back in a heartbeat for the chance to live that life instead.

* * *

He tries to be more surprised weeks later when Janet reconnects with her estranged husband.

The third time a villain has some sort of time-travel device, Steve suspects it's designed to provoke them; they've certainly proven before that even a low-level threat generates an Ultimates-level response when the possibility of time travel is involved in some form.

When Tony Stark later voices the same theory, Steve's convinced he's correct.

Tony doesn't leave him to it this time.  
Somehow it feels harder to pull the trigger while he's in the room too.

It still doesn't work.

After, though, Tony doesn't ask _why_ again, or offer to distract Steve as he might have once. Nevertheless, Steve finds himself in Tony's penthouse later that evening, a drink in hand and thoroughly enjoying himself for once, with a thrill of something _more_ underneath the usual warmth of Tony's company.

He thinks perhaps Tony feels it too. The future may be a mystery to him in so many ways, but some languages never truly evolve beyond the necessary.

It is the best he's felt since he woke up, and he takes pains to point this out to Tony.

Though bolder than he's used to, when Tony leans in towards him, just slightly, and offers, "I could make it even better darling, if you'd care to stay for a nightcap?"   
it's nice to know not _everything_ about the future is as incomprehensible as it might have once seemed.

* * *

There's no callout for the next incident - instead Steve stumbles on it entirely by accident.

Only because this - _whatever_ \- is between him and Tony has evolved beyond a night of comfort for two lonely men, into something more, _well_ \- they haven't exactly discussed what it is.

Though nights, even entire weekends spent in Tony's penthouse have become a part of Steve's routine - perhaps the best part of it.

It's not unusual for Tony to be caught up in a project, whether something for his company, or just improvements to the Iron Man, that Steve's long since learned to make hiself at home in Tony's space while he waits, though this time the silence echoing through the penthouse is suspicious.

Later, he thinks, he'll tell Tony it was the military instincts, still sharp after all the years of disuse, which gave him cause to suspect something wasn't right. Or perhaps he'll blame his enhanced senses, brush it off as another reason to be thankful to Project Rebirth - anything to avoid the mortifying realisation just now settling in that actually, he treasures the moments here in Tony's penthouse so much he's comitted every nuance to memory.

Tony's tied up well when Steve finds him, in a lesser-used room of the tower. The woman holding him captive seems familiar, but Steve has no time to dwell on that, nor on how she managed to get access to the tower without Tony knowing; that's a problem for Tony to solve later. He does, however take a moment to listen to Tony goading her.

"That won't work. I can see from over here you haven't got half the components you'd need for that to be a functional time machine, sweetheart. Try harder next time."

"I don't need it to be _functional_ , Stark," she spits at him, a hint of an accent Steve can't quite place colouring her words, "I just need the suggestion that it _might_ , for your dear Captain to come running."

Tony blinks at her, "the joke's on you there, I'm afraid darling. The Ultimates alarm hasn't even been triggered. No one's coming."

That earns him a scowl, "well then," she says, deceptively calmly, "I suppose you die instead."

Steve doesn't attempt to use the machine this time. He wonders if he might have done, had he not known it was fake. For the first time since he woke up, Steve can't answer that question.

* * *

Steve finds his answer only weeks later; Tony is uncharacteristically preoccupied in those weeks, enough that Steve sees very little of him and only barely manages not to resent whatever project has taken Tony's focus away. His lonely apartment is lonelier still with the comparison fresh in his memory.

It's after another Ultimates mission that they're next together, Tony loitering deliberately after cleanup until there's only him and Steve left. He's hiding it well, but Steve can sense the nervous energy coming off him in waves.

"Care to join me for a drink, darling? I think we've earned it."

Of course, Steve's learned recently, he's not likely to _ever_ turn down a request from Tony Stark.

When they arrive at the tower though, instead of the penthouse Tony leads him to his workshop. Before Steve can enter Tony stops him with a hand on his chest.

"I have something I want to show you, but before I do it's important to me that you know - these past few months have been wonderful for me. Whatever you decide, I wanted you to know that."

And with that he steps aside, and Steve stops, frozen in place as he takes in what he's looking at; it's nothing he'd have recognised initially, except for the fact that a lot of the components he's seen before - salvaged from time travel machines.

"It works," Tony assures him, misreading his silence, "I tested it to be certain."

He's not nervous, Steve realises belatedly, he's upset - Tony thinks he knows what Steve's answer is, and he's sure this is goodbye. Yet still Tony's prepared to give him this because he still thinks it's what Steve wants.

Ironic, perhaps, that it took a gesture like this to give Steve a reason to want to stay in the future, finally.

"Thank you Tony," he says with a smile, "but I think I'd actually rather stay right here."

Tony nods sombrely, and turns to the machine before Steve's words sink in, and he turns back wide-eyed.

"If you'll have me, that is?"

"If I'll - of _course_ , darling!"


End file.
